Many of us went through a winter that seemed nonexistent. There were no major blizzards or numbing arctic outbreaks. And it looks as if spring continued much of the same weather pattern throughout the United States.

After reviewing the past several months, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that May 2012 will end as the second warmest on record in the United States. It also said that theÂ spring period of March through May will go down as the warmest on record since record keeping began in 1895.

The average temperature in May over the contiguous United States was 64.3 degrees, or 3.3 degrees above normal. For spring, the average was 57.1 degrees, 5.2 degree above normal. The previous record for warmest spring was set in 1910; this spring beat that year by 2 degrees.

If you look back over the last 12 months from June 2011 to May 2012, it is the warmest 12-month period of any 12 months on record, according to NOAA.

The warm temperatures were not tied to any one particular part of the country. In the contiguous United States, only Oregon and Washington had spring temperatures near normal.

Data starting on January 1 through the end of May show many cities are off to their warmest start since record keeping began at the location:

soundoff(222 Responses)

DJCowboy

I believe in human caused climate change (though our part in it is not to the extent that Al Gore would have you believe) but these type of articles I think are almost more of an article against climate change. If we're saying the last time it was this warm was, in some areas, over 100 years ago then were our greenhouse gases making it this warm back then too and then all the really cold times in between now and then were just less greenhouse gases being produced? If anything, this article just says that our weather is completely random and we get warmer weather every so often rather than our doing

I recognize that the climate is changing, I don't care whether humans are causing it or not, it's happening. However, let's not forget the 21 FEET of snow that fell in about 3 days in AK this winter. Climate isn't measured in a single year. Next spring could be one of the coldest on record for all we know.

I just wonder if you man made global warming knuckleheads even realize a warmer planet is way more beneficial than a colder planet? Why does the natural cycle of changing environment drive you so mad. We have seen very early settlements in Greenland being exposed when the glaciers recede. This is clear evidence that our planet goes through climate change as a natural cycle. Also, keep in mind the sun is the major deciding factor to our climate.

How the hell is a rising ocean flooding hundreds of thousands of costal lands "better." Although you are sort of right that the US won't feel the true brunt of climate change, that will be felt closer to the equator where drought and famine will kill millions. But hey, as long as the 1st world can adjust fast enough, right?

JohnH–Sea levels have been rising for 20,000 years and that rate of increase has been trending toward zero. There has been no increase in the rate of sea level rise as carbon emissions have increased. Facts are your friend. Google University of Colorado or other reliable data.

BS- "no increase in rate" of course means the sea level is rising as well as temps and CO2. This is cyclical and has been for most of the 800,000 yrs revealed in the fossil records. In all those records CO2 never got much above ~360ppm. Further back (millions yrs), CO2 seems to have played a significant role in extinction events. We're in uncharted territory with the fossil record at least a better indicator than the predictions of the denialists. Taking a 20K yr slice of the climate record is just as bad as judging climate change by observing one weeks worth of weather.

now what does this tell you people? look at earths weather!! its getting hotter and drier every year, the polar ice caps keep melting, and there for flooding our world. this planet earth is not going to keep supporting us like this. some day the air will become so toxic you will need a gas mask. the ozone will be depleted, and spending a few seconds in the sun will burn you alive. us humans have got to at least try and clean up our planet OR go into space in search of a new home we can pollute. dont kid yourself it will get very bad in the next few decades, the next 100 years bring us to what I said above. is this the future we all want for ourselfs and our kids?

Nothing in your post is accurate. You might be a little less scared if you looked at actual facts.

Earth's temperature has not increased in the past 10-12 years (google data from NASA). Sea level rise has not increased at all and has been stable for many, many decades. University of Colorado data suggests it is possible that the rise in sea levels has recently started to slow (or it could just be a temporary anomaly).

So 1910 was the second-warmest spring compared to 2012. But NOAA climate records show that 1910 was only the 35th warmest year in the 20th Century. In other words, cherry-picking statistics proves nothing. Perhaps now warmists will claim that we've had the hottest day in the past 100 years, or the hottest hour, or microsecond...

There is very little science to the brief statistic brought up in this article. In every data set, there are outliers. There was one in 1910, and one now.

I have no problem accepting the fact that the earth is probably warming. It happens all the time, and has happened in the past. The real questions pertain to how much man plays a role in that warming. I believe if you were to eliminate man from the picture, the earth would still warm. The question is how much less, if at all.

Trees give off more heat than man, as do insects. Yet, puny little man caused global warming? Hardly.
From science we know that at one time, the entire earth was green w/o polar icecaps. Our world is turning back into that paradise like earth and nothing can stop it from happening.
Our pollution and environmentally disasterous ways of doing things has only taken what naturally would have been a slow and gentle change for the better and turned it into one with violent weather extremes.

It does nothing of the like. It just grandfathers in homes constructed before Aug 11, 2009 from the existing setback rules.

In other words, if a hurricane destroys your home on the coast, they cannot deny your permit to rebuild on the same spot if you don't meet the existing setback rules if your home was originally built prior to Aug 2009.

Because this is about climate and not small local changes. There is a world of difference and you only make yourself look ignorant when trying to bring up one when everyone else is talking about the other.

Paradise earth will have prevailded once all is said and done. Once those willfully ruining this earth have been ruined themselves, and the only humans remaining become true caretakers of this the most wonderful planet in the known universe.

Sure our pollution and synthetics have done much damage to this good earth. But look what it's done to you us humans! And particularly US humans.
Mankind is much worse for the wear than this good earth is.

The people pushing the gloabal warming industry are the same ones who were trying to spread panic about the impending ice age in the 1970s. Weather is cyclical, always has been, always will be. If past experience is a reliable indicator, we should be near the end of a typical warming cycle now, so the climate change nuts will have to start back with the global cooling panic. One thing is for sure – the solution will be more government power over personal choice, and higher taxes. That is the Left's solution to every problem, whether real or imagined.

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